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The hottest day on record for Sydney is 45.3, set on January 14, 1939, followed by 44.2 on New Year's Day, 2006.

However while it's unlikely any NSW records will be broken, a nationwide temperature record has already fallen this year.

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The Bureau of Meteorology announced on Monday that Australia broke a record for the number of days with an average maximum of 39 degrees or more in a row.

The nation passed five days in a row on Sunday and there remains a chance that the record for the hottest average national temperature - 40.17 degrees, set on December 21, 1972 - will fall on Monday or Tuesday.

Over the past five days, the bureau says the national daily average temperature was 39.21 on January 2; 39.55 on January 3; 39.32 on January 4; 39.26 on January 5; and 39.71 on January 6.

Some towns in the state's south broke heat records on Saturday, but were still some way off the NSW record of 49.7 at Menindee on January 10, 1939.

Narrandera hit 45.3, breaking its January 1973 record of 44.8. Albury peaked at 43.4, breaking its January 2009 record of 43. Tumbarumba's maximum temperature was 40, breaking its January 2009 record of 39.8.

The state's hottest temperatures ever were mostly recorded in January 1939, when hot air was blown across the state from the west.

Menindee, Euston, and Bourke all recorded maximum temperatures of 48 and above.

White Cliffs, in northwest NSW, had a maximum temperature of 48.6 on January 3 1973.

An article in The West Australian from January 16, 1939, said that NSW heatwave took a heavy toll, with the deaths of 77 infants and elderly people.

It said "hundreds of people slept on beaches and in parks to escape from the smothering conditions indoors" as a scorching wind swept across Sydney.

"The wind, coming in hot gusts from the west, seared face, neck and arms and many cases of collapse were reported."

The hot weather on Tuesday is bad news for firefighters, who are expecting dangerous fire conditions.

"At the moment half the state is looking at severe [fire ratings], a large proportion is in extreme and there is the possibility of catastrophic," Rural Fire Service spokeswoman Bridie O'Connor said.

"We are looking at temperatures above 40 degrees in many parts of the state.

"Couple that with a strong, gusty northwesterley winds.

"We've already got a number of incidents already going. If they don't get contained today, that sort of weather may push them out of their containment lines and then there may be a number of fires that start.

"The key message is the single most important thing for people to do is to prepare their bushfire survival plan."

"That is only going to take a half an hour of their life and it is a simple action that may well save their life."